A visit with Jonathan Charles founder and president Jonathan Sowter

For the past two decades that he has led Vietnam-based manufacturer Jonathan Charles, Jonathan Sowter has built a business that has become a leader in high-end, luxury antique reproduction-style case goods. It’s a company that he started 20 years ago with just 10 employees and has since grown to more than 1,000 employees.

But while the company has remained loyal to its roots in reproduction furniture, its product portfolio in bedroom, dining, living room and accent furniture also has evolved into more clean-lined forms with updated finishes. As a manufacturer at heart, who began his career as the first employee at Theodore Alexander, Sowter has been instrumental in the production of the Jonathan Charles line, overseeing everything from its veneer selection and use of materials, to the hand-crafted nature of nearly all pieces. It has been his vision that has driven the company forward for the past 20 years and continues to lead it on a path to the future for many years to come.

Earlier this year, company owner Markor International named Sowter brand president of the company. Here, he shares some of his story, including his new responsibilities.

Home News Now: Tell us about your current role with Jonathan Charles and how it differs from what you were doing earlier in your career with the company.

Sowter : For the past 7 years, I have been focusing on the factory in Vietnam. We have invested heavily in the factory over recent years, and we have grown beyond recognition in the last three years. We have over tripled in capacity and revenue in the last three years alone. The factory now has over 2,200 employees and is kept busy via several different revenue streams.

+ Residential output. This comprises of Jonathan Charles and OEM brands, many of whom we have being working with for over 10 years now. This is also split into USA and “rest of the world.”

+ Hospitality output. This has been where a lot of our growth has come from in recent years. We did our first hotel project in 2014 (the Lanesborough Hotel in London) and since then we have steadily grown in this segment. Initially we focused on 5- and 6-star properties around the world … Middle East, Europe, North America, Caribbean, etc. … However, recently we expanded our production facility to give us a second production line that can do a simpler, higher-volume compared to our original Jonathan Charles line that is much more craftsmanship-based. This opens us up to a hospitality market that we previously couldn’t service … the mid to high-end 4-star projects.

Are there any other main responsibilities in the new position that you would like to add or mention?

Sowter: My new responsibility represents a shift in my focus. Now the factory is all restructured and expanded (I have an amazing team now that can continue to develop the factory’s capabilities), my focus shifts to Phase 2 of the plan … to develop JC to become a more significant portion of the factory’s capacity and utilize the fantastic artisan capabilities of the team. To be honest, over the past few years, I have not paid enough attention to JC the brand within the U.S. market (this brand sells globally), and it is clear that to achieve what I want to achieve I am going to have to spend more of my own time focused on JC, the designs, the customers and developing the distribution in the USA and worldwide further.

Will we see any new stylistic direction for the product line compared to what it has been most recently? Or new product emphasis or categories moving forward?

Sowter: Oh, YES. … I think it will be quite clear quite quickly that I’m back. I feel very strongly that the name Jonathan Charles is synonymous with a certain look and certain qualities that you’d expect to see. For some time now, JC has tried several different directions, and it would be fair to say that we look like we lost our way for a while. … I intend to bring JC back to what people expect when you think of JC. This October market was our 20^th anniversary. In October 2004 I launched 35 designs and it seems like yesterday. To celebrate our 20^th anniversary, we brought more than 50 of our big statement pieces that truly represent Jonathan Charles’ values, attention to detail and unparalleled craftsmanship and the origins of JC. We also launched a hardback coffee table book at the October furniture market to showcase each piece and highlight the craftsmanship and provenance of each item. At the same time, we launched some beautiful new modern pieces using some new techniques we have been learning over the past couple of years. In stark contrast to our traditional pieces, I believe these will become classics of the future. While we are initially synonymous with “Traditional” in the customer’s eye, it’s our technique and artisan capabilities that make the Jonathan Charles brand, so these modern pieces are just as important to the line as our more traditional English styles.

Has the organizational structure of the company changed in any other ways? For example, is there anyone in the position you held previously? Or have there been any other staff promotions that you would care to mention? 

Sowter: Yes, we have had a huge reorganization across the whole company, from the manufacturing side to the JC distribution side. We have built an excellent team in the factory in Vietnam, with a board of directors that is a combination of young, smart Vietnamese directors and some older ones that have been with me a long time. The combination of the young working with the experienced is so refreshing and a pleasure to be around. This team has been formed for a couple of years now and I think everyone would agree that things run smoother when I’m away on business trips. 😊 … In the U.S., we have a small, yet beautifully formed team headed up by the great Mr. Garth Robinson. Currently performing the role of senior vice president of sales, Garth is focusing on putting together a great sales force and building (or rebuilding) relationships with our customers. Garth will be a very important part of JC’s future … watch this space! …

Can you identify what your top priorities will be in this new position?

Sowter: My priority is to bring back JC’s DNA … and to spend time with our customers, listening to what they want from JC. We have already decided that we want to become recognized as the best high-end solution for dining. I feel that we can make the best dining table in the business. … We are launching a four-prong strategy for dining. …

1. We have a huge selection of standard dining tables that are stocked and available for dispatching within 48 hours from our Greensboro warehouse.
2. We offer our new “Dining by the Inch” program where you can take one of our standard tables and order with any length or width changes and delivered within 16 weeks, which is a truly remarkable timeline when being crafted in Vietnam.
3. Then our Rolls Royce solution is the relaunch of our custom dining website which is being rebranded as “Bespoke Dining” where you can order a unique one-off table exactly the way you want, with literally millions of options, where the only limit is your imagination … this will be unapologetically expensive and extremely high end.
4. Finally, we offer almost all our dining chairs in COM, done locally in North Carolina, affordable and quick.

I don’t know of another company with such a comprehensive solution for dining. … I want the first name to pop into a designer’s head when they need a high-quality dining solution to be Jonathan Charles. …

What is the biggest challenge facing the company right now?  

Sowter: With all the changes over the years in JC, the biggest challenge is to win our old customers back. That’s why I have decided to take this president’s role myself for now … so I can meet the customers, listen to them and explain first-hand what my vision of the future is. I believe strongly that Traditional is coming back, in a new format … but it’s coming back and I want everyone to know that Jonathan Charles will be the place to look for it.

Can you say what the company’s biggest opportunity is moving forward? In other words, what do you see as the main strength for the company right now and how do you plan to utilize that to the benefit of the entire organization? 

Sowter: There is no question that our biggest strength is our factory. We have 2,200 skilled craftsmen and women capable of making exquisite pieces. I need to develop new designs that truly reflect what we are capable of. That is not to say everything needs to look like an 18^th-century antique you inherited from your grandparents … but from the selection of the finest materials to the complex hand finishing … every item needs to tell a story. Our opportunity is … we have a great story to tell … the factory and the people in it are the most important thing to me. I’m a craftsman, and without the factory we would become just another brand sourcing from the same factories as everyone else … the factory is what makes Jonathan Charles stand out in a very crowded marketplace. 

Have there been any significant changes to the manufacturing operation in recent months or during the pandemic that you would like to mention? 

Sowter: As I mentioned before, we have grown significantly … but we still have retained our craftsmen and women. We work on some of the best hotel properties in the world … from the St. Regis in Aspen to the Dorchester in London. To produce residential-quality high-end furniture on a scale of a 400-room hotel is not difficult. Factories that typically make for hotels usually only make for hotels and struggle to make anything that would fit into a residential setting. Our hotel customers want the residential look; no millionaire wants to go on vacation and stay in a hotel where the interior is worse than they have at home … the higher end the hotel the higher the expectation of the guests. It is a real challenge and one that we seem to have mastered.

Is the plant at or near full capacity? And is the economy cooperating in any way to help maintain the flow of goods/plant utilization?  

Sowter: Even though we have grown over 300% in the past three years, we still have room to grow. Adding three more buildings last year increased our floor space by 42% to over 750,000 square feet. Our plans are to grow the next three years by 30% each year. We will achieve this by continuing to have a diverse customer mix. Jonathan Charles is at the forefront, but with our OEM customers growing with us and our hotel business going from strength to strength we are optimistic for the future. Anyone who visits the factory is blown away by the attention to detail and the obsession we all have for making fine furniture. The good thing about having a mix of residential and hospitality is that (hopefully) when one is down the other is up. It has certainly worked out for us that way over the past six years or so.

Who do you see as the company’s main customer base and is this changing or evolving as we speak? 

Sowter: Our distribution model is continuously evolving, and the pandemic expedited this transformation, reaching a wider customer base that includes luxury retailers, design boutiques, and interior design and architecture firms. These clients are typically affluent individuals who seek bespoke, customizable pieces that align with their personal tastes and lifestyles. They place a high value on sustainability, sophisticated design, quality and craftsmanship — all areas where Jonathan Charles truly excels.

You are a designer and furniture manufacturer at heart. How will this influence your new role as president? 

Sowter: Greatly. A lot of what I have talked about above is about bringing the original DNA of JC back. That DNA came from me, it came from my passion and obsession for detail and craftsmanship and as the new president of JC, I intend to bring that DNA back stronger than ever. Only this time we have a bigger and more capable factory to back it all up with.